Customizing Cinnamon

[IbChristian]

I preferred Mate, but I never got it to install correctly, so I ended up with Cinnamon. It's OK, but it seems to be lacking a few things that Mate had, or I just haven't found out how to work them yet.

One was I was able to change the opacity of the panel itself, changing it from totally opaque to completely transparent. The other was I was able to mount a power button directly onto the Panel. Also, in Mate I could download additional desktop backgrounds from Linux in the backgrounds "manager". I haven't yet found a way to do any of these in Cinnamon.

Do any of these options even exist in Cinnamon? How do I access/acquire them?

TIA

 

[marcelstevano]

I preferred Mate, but I never got it to install correctly, so I ended up with Cinnamon. It's OK, but it seems to be lacking a few things that Mate had, or I just haven't found out how to work them yet.

One was I was able to change the opacity of the panel itself, changing it from totally opaque to completely transparent. The other was I was able to mount a power button directly onto the Panel. Also, in Mate I could download additional desktop backgrounds from Linux in the backgrounds "manager". I haven't yet found a way to do any of these in Cinnamon.

Do any of these options even exist in Cinnamon? How do I access/acquire them?

TIA

Cinnamon handles customization a bit differently than MATE -it relies more on Applets and Extensions rather than built-in menu toggles for everything.

Here's how to fix those three missing features:

1. Panel Opacity: Cinnamon doesn't have a slider for this by default. You need to install an extension called "Transparent Panels". Just go to System Settings -> Extensions -> Download (tab), find it, and enable it.

2. Power Button on Panel: Right-click your panel, select "Add Applets to the Panel", and look for "Power Management" or a dedicated "Shutdown" applet in the Download tab. Once installed, you can drag it wherever you want.

3. Backgrounds: Cinnamon's background manager is more static. It doesn't have a built-in "store" like MATE did. You usually have to download the. jpg files manually or install a tool like Variety if you want automated wallpaper rotation and downloads.

Most of the missing stuff in Cinnamon is usually just an Applet or Extension away. It's a bit more modular than MATE's old-school approach. Give those a shot

 

[IbChristian]

OK, I downloaded opacity and the power button. i hope I got the right one, there were two. Now what do i do? How do I "activte" them?

 

[bob466]

I preferred Mate, but I never got it to install correctly, so I ended up with Cinnamon. It's OK, but it seems to be lacking a few things that Mate had, or I just haven't found out how to work them yet.

It seems you're very new to Linux and Linux Mint to say Mint Cinnamon is lacking things but in time you'll learn what Cinnamon has.
The fact is...Cinnamon has all the features Mate and Xfce don't have...that's why Cinnamon requires more system resources.

You say you can't download Desktop backgrounds...here's one of mine...you can have a background slide show.

This is the one I'm using now.
You can also change the Login background and the sound that plays when the Desktop loads...mine plays 10 seconds of Star Wars.

If you right click on the panel...just go to panel settings...heaps of things to do there. If you go to System Settings...Themes...Desktop...you can change the panel colour and panel icons.

I always put these three Icons on the Desktop...

You can change the size of them and the position too.

That's just a few things hope this helps.

 

[IbChristian]

Thanks, but I finally manged to install Mate, and so far it seems to be working good. I prefer it to Cinnamon; it feels more like Windows 7, which I'm migrating from.

And yes, I'm a rank beginner.

 

[bob466]

Thanks, but I finally manged to install Mate, and so far it seems to be working good. I prefer it to Cinnamon; it feels more like Windows 7, which I'm migrating from.

And yes, I'm a rank beginner.

I have Mint mate running in Virtualbox at the moment but I don't think it's like windoze 7...I also have a w7 VM and I can't see it like any Mint version.

The best thing about Linux is...you're free to install any Distro you like...have fun.